Pete’s blog

Venue: Nadine and Andrew Moses’ house – Orange Grove

Veteran’s alliance: Peter Nixon (MC), Nadine Moses (host), Andrew Moses, Jimmy Myerscough, Sarah Tinsley, Gary Chenik, Dale Vice, Leza Vice.

Unsuspecting bystanders: Two car-guards were also fed.

Meal: Chicken Tangiers (adapted form of Chicken Tagine), couscous, salad. Cinnamon stewed nectarines and vanilla ice-cream for dessert.

Redistribution programme implemented: Everyone brought a R40 present, which was then chosen and swapped by everyone.

Topics discussed: How to play lie dice (which was also played)

Drinks consumed: Wine, Frangelico.

Success rating: 9/10

Critique of meal: Cooking for 10 people is an absolute nightmare, the quantities are just insane. You find yourself looking at this massive pile of chicken and thinking “there is no way I can cook all of this!” I did a lot of pre-cooking work, cutting and marinading the chicken, cooking dessert, cutting the lemons, etc. Given the meal a high rating because somehow it still worked! Could have been a disaster because exactly halfway through cooking the chicken, the power went out – fortunately I just kept cooking. Gas rules! The couscous needed more water which was a bit annoying – last time I trust the measurements on the side of a kettle (“Hey, why isn’t the kettle boiling!? Oh wait, the power is out!”) Think I need to find better desserts…

Lessons learnt: Cook on gas. Don’t trust kettle measurements. Season tomatoes with herbs and sugar and stuff before adding them to salad (thank’s Nadine). Don’t attempt to brown 2kg of chicken all at once.